Coming off of an improved second year under head coach Kalen DeBoer, in which Alabama both made the playoffs and advanced to the quarterfinals, fans are hopeful that the team will take yet another step forward in 2026.
Early preseason rankings, however, have not been optimistic about Alabama’s prospects of going on another playoff run.
A composite preseason ranking by On3 that totaled the rankings of nine different sources has Alabama ranked No. 16 heading into 2026. ESPN’s ranking, included in the composite one, had Alabama as low as No. 21, with Fox Sports similarly having Alabama at No. 20.
The precipitous drop-off in Alabama’s preseason ranking from where they ended the season is unlike any other team on the list. The only other power conference team that made the playoffs and dropped out of the top 12, Ole Miss, is ranked higher at No. 13 despite losing its head coach.
These rankings reflect the current sentiment of college football commentators that Alabama is no longer deserving of perennial consideration as one of the best programs in the country.
As Fox Sports commentator Joel Klatt recently said, “When I think about their conference, I don’t think about [Alabama] initially, and I don’t even think about them in the top three.”
Perhaps the most obvious reason for being skeptical of Alabama’s capabilities in 2026 is its quarterback situation. Of all the teams ranked in the composite poll, Alabama is the only one to lack a quarterback on the roster with any starting experience.
Quarterback inexperience cannot entirely explain the drop; Ohio State came in at No. 3 in the final preseason AP Poll last year, despite fielding a first-time starter at the position. It would also not explain why Michigan, which returns a quarterback that struggled last year, would be ranked above Alabama at No. 14. There seem to be other roster criticisms motivating Alabama’s low ranking.
Paul Finebaum said that the key issue for DeBoer and Alabama is getting outcompeted by higher spenders in the transfer portal.
“It’s hard to accept that Alabama is being outmaneuvered and outspent,” Finebaum said. This comment came after he described the program as being in “shambles” following its playoff loss to Indiana.
While it is true that Alabama boasts only the No. 44 transfer class by On3’s rankings, this criterion also fails to match the rest of the preseason rankings. No. 4 Georgia, for example, comes in at No. 52 in the portal rankings, while No. 13 USC’s class is ranked No. 51.
No. 14 Michigan not only has the No. 66 portal class, but is coming off a coach firing and lost a total of 27 players to the transfer portal.
Boasting a middle-of-the-pack transfer class and returning elite talent in its secondary and wide receiver rooms, it seems unjustifiable for Alabama to be well outside of the playoff bubble in preseason rankings. No offseason roster changes have been drastic enough for Alabama to be justifiably outside of the top 12, which wouldn’t also exclude other teams high in the preseason polls.
With no discernible roster reason for Alabama being uniquely low in these rankings among the best teams from last season, it seems that Alabama is being judged by the standards of its dynasty-era teams rather than being evenly compared to other teams in the country.
As ESPN writer Mark Schlabach put it in his ranking, “DeBoer is undoubtedly on the hot seat entering his third in Tuscaloosa” because of his 20-8 record through two years. Ironically, Schlabach has 11-4 Alabama right behind No. 20 TCU, who he says got “back on track” in their 9-4 season last year.
The asymmetries in how Alabama is judged relative to other teams are indicators of how Alabama’s rankings in the media are subject to more than just fair evaluations of the team’s performance and roster.
While rankings are supposed to compare teams to one another, the retirement of Nick Saban has given way to continuous comparisons of Alabama’s performance under DeBoer to that of the best teams under Saban, a trend that has carried over to how media analysts rank Alabama in national polls.
“They are on a trajectory that is down,” Klatt said. “I don’t sense that moment of them leveling out.”
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